Open tuning
A guitar tuning in which the open strings sound a chord, so strumming without fretting produces a full chord.
Also called: open tunings, open G, open D, open chord tuning
An open tuning tunes the strings of a guitar so that the open strings form a chord. Open G, the most familiar, tunes the strings to D, G, D, G, B and D from low to high, so strumming all the open strings sounds a full G major chord. Open D tunes to D, A, D, F♯, A and D, which gives a D major chord. Open tunings suit slide guitar, where a bar slides across the strings without pressing them to frets, and they let a single finger sound chords. Players switch from standard tuning, E, A, D, G, B and E, when a song needs a drone or a ringing chord. The trade-off is that the fingerings and chord shapes change completely.
Related terms
- CapoA clamp that presses all the strings at one fret, raising the pitch of a guitar or similar string instrument.
- CAGED systemA way of learning guitar chords from five open shapes, C, A, G, E and D, which together cover the whole fretboard.
- FretboardThe playing surface of a fretted instrument, where each fret raises the open string by one semitone.